The Spectre Scene They're Refusing To Show In India

In the global world we live in, it’s not uncommon to see something considered innocuous in one place handled very differently somewhere else. It happens a lot when pop culture is exported from one country to another. A film may be rated differently in one country than another because different cultures and societies can view the same things very differently. So, the fact that the new James Bond movie was given some additional edits in India is not surprising on the face of it. However, the reason for those edits is more than a little surprising.

India’s Central Board of Film Certification has deemed the kissing scenes in Spectre to be "too excessive" and has thus, removed half of them from the film. They have also removed the film’s one PG-13 acceptable f-bomb as well as an uttering of the word "asshole." This has earned the film the U/A rating, which is more or less on par with the MPAA rating of PG. India does not have a rating option between the U/A and Adults Only.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, this removal of the scenes has led to a backlash on the internet’s home for backlash, Twitter. The hashtag #SanskariJamesBond, or Loyal James Bond, is now your home for all your favorite James Bond jokes, shifted into Indian culture in order to be more in line with what the Film Board would apparently like to see.

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This isn't the first time that the CBFC has tried to make modifications to western films. A couple of years ago, they wanted to remove nude scenes from David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was eventually decided to simply not release the film there at all. Hey, does India just have a problem with Daniel Craig?

Being a much more conservative nation, India doesn’t have the variety of film ratings that we have here. Their "Adult’s Only" rating is exactly that. It’s more akin to our NC-17 than an R-rating. Your movie either needs to be family friendly, or nobody who is not an adult can see it at all. It was the wide variability in film content that led to the creation of the PG-13 rating here in 1984. Movies like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom were given PG ratings, something director Steven Spielberg wasn’t sure was right, though an R-rating didn’t seem appropriate, either. There’s a lot of ground to cover between those two extremes.

So remember, James Bond, it’s ok to make out with your Bond girls, just don’t get to "excessive." Why isn’t a peck on the cheek good enough for you?

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.